Cases of disabled parking permit abuse surface in large numbers

October 21, 2013

You can’t use a disabled parking permit unless you have a permit registered in your name for a disability. The rewards of accessible parking permits – like free parking and reserved spaces in parking lots – are so alluring that people (including city officials) flout the law routinely.

A councilman in New Jersey was found using his wife’s grandfather’s disabled parking decal to park in the reserved parking space near his law office. This isn’t the first time that there have been allegations of abuse with disabled parking placards by officials; in New Mexico last year, it was found that assistant district attorneys were displaying placards they weren’t entitled to.

Also last year, an information-technology specialist in New York Health Department with an annual income of $58,311 a year was arrested for allegedly forging a doctor’s note to get a accessible parking spot. More recently, an employee in the criminal investigation unit of the Washington D.C.’s troubled tax office was caught for misusing a disability placard to avoid paying for parking.

Paul Rose, spokesperson of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said the agency confiscates about 2,000 parking placards for misuse every year. According to www.parkingmobility.com, 1 in 4 cars that use disabled parking shouldn’t.

disabled parking permit

Types of disabled parking permit abuse include tampering of permits to alter the expiration date, disabled individuals allowing caregivers to use a permit, and able-bodied people fraudulently applying for disabled parking permits. California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Oregon, and Wisconsin have some or the other restrictions regarding the misuse of handicap parking permits, and many states are working on more stringent laws.

California Vehicle Code 4461 VC, for example, forbids lending an accessible parking permit to people not entitled to use it, displaying a disabled parking permit not legally issued to you by the DMV or that has been cancelled or revoked, and driving someone else’s car that displays a legitimate accessible parking permit.

Accessible parking abuse is a serious issue affecting a significant percentage of disabled individuals. When handicap parking permits are abused or misused, it can deprive the disabled of parking facilities reserved for them and cause them a great amount of inconvenience.

disabled parking permit abuse

Tags: , , ,

Category: Regulations

; ;